1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus such as, for example, a digital still camera. The present invention relates more particularly to an image pickup apparatus, an image pickup method, and a program thereof that detect, in particular, a smile of a subject and appropriately perform auto focus (AF), auto exposure (AE), auto white balance (AWB), and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image pickup apparatuses such as digital still cameras and digital video cameras have an AF function. This AF function is used to perform automatic focusing on a subject. In general, an image pickup element such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) is used to pickup a subject image, and a focus position is often automatically determined on the basis of the contrast of a picked-up image. These days, spot AF can be performed. Spot AF allows an AF point to be appropriately set in an AF detectable frame so that a position that a user desires is focused on in an image to be picked up. If an image pickup mode is set as spot AF, a user performs a usual image pickup operation after an AF point which the user desires is selected in an AF detectable frame and the AF point is set on a screen by means of an operation input.
Moreover, whether a face of a subject is positioned at an AF point which is set in the AF detectable frame can be detected these days. That is, so-called face detection can be performed.
For this type of technology, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-104235 discloses an image pickup apparatus that realizes high-quality image pickup by performing image pickup control which is caused to adapt to a specific image pickup subject. With this technology, for example, in an image pickup apparatus that executes image pickup control which has been adapted to a specific image pickup subject such as a face of a person, in a case in which a shielding object such as a wall causes the image pickup subject to temporarily disappear from an image to be picked up, image control adapted to a specific image pickup subject such as the face of the person is continuously performed.
Moreover, technical research is being performed with respect to an image pickup apparatus that detects not only a face of a subject but also a smile thereof. In this case, smile detection is performed, for example, on the basis of whether a main part of a subject satisfies a predetermined condition.
With respect to image pickup with smile detection, it is necessary to instantly perform picking up of an image at a time when a smile is detected in order not to miss picking up the smile occurring for just a moment. However, no proposals have been specifically made for appropriate control of a timing of the start/end of image pickup.